Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

240. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a lost foreign birth certificate will be re-issued to a person (details supplied); the reason for the delay in issuing this new certificate especially given that foreign birth registration has long since been established; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52610/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department is responsible for processing Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) applications for people who are born abroad and claim Irish Citizenship through a grandparent born in Ireland or through a parent who has claimed citizenship also through FBR, Naturalisation or Post Nuptial Citizenship.

Demand for this service increased significantly as a result of the Brexit vote in the UK. In 2015, prior to Brexit, a total of 6,000 entries were made to the register. In 2019, a peak number of 19,000 entries were made to the Foreign Births Register. Demand for this service from applicants in England, Scotland and Wales continues to be strong with over 8,000 applications received to date this year.

The FBR service, which includes the replacement of FBR certificates, was also impacted by necessary Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021 and the unprecedented demand for passports seen to date in 2022. A significant level of specialist research in archived hard copy material by staff is required to produce replacement FBR certificates and the process may accordingly take some time.

The Passport Service has been scaling up resources to deal with anticipated demand for passports and FBRs since June of last year. Staffing numbers in the Passport Service have doubled since June 2021. There are currently 817 staff. My Department ran several competitions in 2021/22 to address staffing needs in the Passport Service. New office space on the Balbriggan campus is now open and provides over 200 additional workstations to accommodate the increase in staff numbers.

The unprecedented level of staff currently working in the Passport Service will be maintained in the months ahead, allowing for the reassignment of additional staff to the processing of FBR applications and FBR replacement requests.

I am advised that the replacement certificate application to which the Deputy has referred is currently being processed. A member of the replacement certificate team will be in contact with the applicant in this regard.